What I'm Reading Wednesday

[thisbluespirit]

What I've Finished Reading

Mostly unexpected things!

A few months ago, my friend (the v kind one who takes me to libraries and hospitals, depending) lent me The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katerina Bivald, which is about a Swedish bookworm who goes to a tiny town in the mid-West US to visit a pen-friend who turns out to be dead. I'd tried looking at it before and just got a headache, but with the weirdness of this illness, I suddenly knew I could read it, and I did. Much too fast. I got a headache again, but for reading it in less than three days instead of looking at the first page. It's really sweet and wish-fulfilling and all about books making a difference, and I can see why my friend lent it to me. (I just need to see her again now so that I can tell her that I have READ it and, yes, I loved it. I may need my own copy, but I'd like one with kinder sized print, though for less-headaches on re-reads.)


Then, in my Magic Free Bookshop, I found a copy of Home by Julie Myerson, a book which I own and have read many times and love but grudgingly (I have mixed feelings), and it was a so much nicer edition than my C-format Hbk-in-disguise-as-a-pbk one that I took it. And then when I looked at it, it had extra bits and letters in the back and I was so ridiculously happy about this and had to re-read the whole thing before I could read the new bits.

Home is basically the book I wish somebody would write about tracing your family tree, except it's about tracing the history of a house and everyone who lived in it. (My mixed feelings are due to: I don't always like the fictionalised segments, and while I get while they're there - the book is also partly about the concept of home on a very personal level - I don't care about the bits where she revisits her old homes). Anyway, it had extra stuff from the people who lived in the house at the back! I am embarrassed by how delighted I am by this. Also, it is a much prettier book and my love for it is immediately a whole lot less grudging than it used to be, because clearly I am shallow like that.


And on Sunday, also possibly by magic, because I don't get post on Sundays, a book dropped through my letterbox. It was Bookworm by Lucy Mangan, and it was my birthday present from my friend G, which I knew immediately as it could be from no one else. (This is very early for G; usually I get my birthday present about six months later. It's not that she's disorganised, it's just that she takes birthdays very seriously and has to get the perfect present and often that takes time!)

Anyway, Bookworm (which had very kind type but which I also read too fast and gave myself a headache) is one of those autobiography-through-books books, but this focuses on childhood and the author is three years older than me and G, and also British, so her experiences correspond very closely to mine (although I took the path that led to Middle Earth and other fantasy novels and she didn't. Diana Wynne Jones is her biggest omission.) It's not uncritical of things that warrant criticism but it's very fondly written, sometimes beautifully, too, on what is so effective about the books she highlights, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. She's pretty good on seeing what's good about the books she didn't take to - her loss, our gain.) It's also a very pretty book in itself, and of course, made me think about where my experience was the same and different. (That was what gave me the headache, really. I start writing imaginary blog posts of all my thoughts; it's exhausting, and then you have absolutely no spoons left to write even coherent sentences on anything of the kind.) It was also the most G-like present possible!


I did also read A Viking in the Family by Keith Gregson, which is a small book of very short family history stories from various people, which was nice to dip in and out of. I think I could have lived with the stories being a little longer in places and the how to all kept to the section at the back, but I enjoyed it anyway.


What I'm Reading Now

On the NF (Family history) side, I am note-taking from Poor Jack by Ronald Hope about Merchant Seamen, which is interesting and accessible (mostly via contemporary accounts), but for my purposes has very little about coastal seaman, and even though it's about Merchant Seamen, it's amazing how often you still find yourself in the Navy.

I am not reading anything else properly at the moment, as I am waiting for the last Sarah Caudwell book to arrive, and it is resolutely not arriving. I'm mildly reading The Wills of Our Ancestors by Stuart A. Raymond, which is actually what you would expect and pretty helpful. (Pen & Sword have a whole series of these kind of books and they mostly are, although some more than others.)


What I'm Reading Next

*stares at the letterbox*

*obstinately ignores piles and piles of books in room*

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Bookworm sounds completely delightful although also possibly like something that might not cross the Great Atlantic Divide... but it looks like it just came out in May, so there's still time. Fingers crossed!

[thisbluespirit]

She had more luck than me in coming across US classics, so it might not be too bad, but of course, whether or not it crosses it itself is another matter! (She writes a lot about Sendak, Seuss, Ramona & others that I barely even saw anywhere.) It was lovely, though. I could have sat here and quoted her a lot on some of my favourite childhood reads! I've read another book like this, but it was a lot less fair to any authors the writer didn't like than she is. (It is a v new book. G must have pounced on it and then immediately got it for me!)

[persiflage_1]

I only gave Readers of Broken Wheel 2 stars as I found the setup weird and pretty unbelievable (why the hell would you invite your penpal to travel thousands of miles to visit you when you know you're terminally ill? That's either rude or selfish, or both!).

I did enjoy 'Bookworm', though.

[thisbluespirit]

Bookworm was v good!

[persiflage_1]

Yes.

In unrelated news, I'm seriously thinking of writing backstory!fic for Lairre in Mythos.

Send help!

[thisbluespirit]

What sort of help? Do you mean egging you on? I can do that. ;-)

[persiflage_1]

Ummmm.....

Thank you, I think!

[thisbluespirit]

:-D

[liadt]

Sounds like you've been having a good run on books!

I hope you get some kinder text to read. I'm reading 'Edward IV' by Charles Ross and my eyes do not like it at all. It's a nightmare to read no matter how close or far I put it to my face.

[thisbluespirit]

I really have. I hope it continues!

[liadt]

Once a roll starts it can't stop:)

[sovay]

I am note-taking from Poor Jack by Ronald Hope about Merchant Seamen, which is interesting and accessible (mostly via contemporary accounts), but for my purposes has very little about coastal seaman, and even though it's about Merchant Seamen, it's amazing how often you still find yourself in the Navy.

That still sounds of interest to me (on the merchant marine side, not the Navy), so thank you for drawing it to my attention!

[thisbluespirit]

I'm glad! It isn't very in depth, though, but there are some good segments from contemporary accounts. It's very hard to find anything about British merchant seaman, and especially about those who worked in coastal shipping. I've now moved onto The British Seamen by Christopher Lloyd, which is about the only other title I've found. (It covers Navy and Merchant Navy, but at least that's something.)

[sovay]

It's very hard to find anything about British merchant seaman, and especially about those who worked in coastal shipping.

Just out of curiosity, when and where?

[thisbluespirit]

On and off from about 1800-1870, although I don't know how much further back it might go, because there are more 19th C records of all kinds. But they were mostly fairly casual - they worked in the port of Bridgwater in the south west and mainly did the run to Cardiff or Newport, taking tiles & bricks (the main local industry) across and coming back with coal, so the voyages were mostly about 2 days and they were often just recorded as quay labourers or brickyard labourers, so it took a while to discover how many of them had also regularly been seamen. One of them went as far as Liverpool and Yarmouth, though! And the first one, I know least about, but he was a pilot for the port in the 1830s. (He also vanished from 1803 to 1816, which is a bit of a tantalising gap, but I don't know for sure that they weren't just in another parish somewhere.)

But people don't write books about people who sailed the Bristol Channel!

[dimity_blue]

I'm laughing at your last bit. Did the letterbox give you any more books?

(And isn't 'letterbox' a wonderfully descriptive name?)

"Home" sounds oddly fascinating. "Bookworm" really does sound like the perfect book for you.

[thisbluespirit]

I'm laughing at your last bit. Did the letterbox give you any more books?

No! I haven't had any post for 2 days!

However, when I went across to Tesco's, their charity table of books had several Daisies, including one I hadn't read, so I'm reading a Daisy while I wait now.

[hamsterwoman]

This is very early for G; usually I get my birthday present about six months later. It's not that she's disorganised, it's just that she takes birthdays very seriously and has to get the perfect present and often that takes time!)

I definitely think this is a better way to do birthday presents than the reverse!

Bookworm sounds lovely in general! Though based on your description, it does also sound like something that would be way less relevant to a reader from a different place or generation...

[thisbluespirit]

Bookworm sounds lovely in general! Though based on your description, it does also sound like something that would be way less relevant to a reader from a different place or generation...

I think it's more the other way around - I just got a big bonus out of us being of the same generation. It was very careful to explain books, focus on well-known ones (though not always), explain context, and generally just be enthusiastic about reading and there was a lot of US stuff in it, too. But obviously, having grown up as a fellow bookworm at the same time made it a different experience again!

G is v sweet!